How feud between two Sudanese factions became 2023’s ‘forgotten other war’

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Updated 30 December 2023
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How feud between two Sudanese factions became 2023’s ‘forgotten other war’

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania: A vicious power struggle between two Sudanese factions captured the headlines for months earlier this year, but fell off the radar over time, despite the loss of 12,000 lives so far and the displacement of more than 7 million people.

The conflict, which erupted on April 15, began to lose traction as world powers shifted their attention to Israel’s war with the Palestinian militant group Hamas since Oct. 7 and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, African leaders, preoccupied with daunting domestic challenges, have been slow to address the Sudan crisis, Africa’s third-largest country.

Despite organizing conferences to end the war, they have struggled to rein in the warring sides, putting the region’s political and economic stability in jeopardy

The consequences of this combination of neglect and failure are becoming increasingly obvious.




African leaders, preoccupied with daunting domestic challenges, have been slow to address the Sudan crisis, Africa’s third-largest country.

The conflict between erstwhile allies — the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces — has devastated the country that they jointly seized in 2021 in a coup aimed at thwarting a transition to democratic governance.

The International Monetary Fund has forecast a nearly 20 percent contraction in Sudan’s economy this year, highlighting the dire impact of the conflict. Sudan now holds the dubious distinction of having the world’s largest number of internal refugees.

A staggering 6.3 million people have been displaced since April alone, adding to the 3.7 million Sudanese who had already fled their homes in previous conflicts, along with 1.1 million foreigners who had earlier sought refuge in Sudan.

More than 1.4 million Sudanese have sought shelter in neighboring countries since the onset of the conflict, piling pressure on regional states already grappling with their own humanitarian issues and political upheavals.

Meanwhile, aid agencies warn that more than 6 million people are on the brink of famine.

More concerning still are reports of ethnic cleansing in the Darfur region in harrowing echoes of the events of the early 2000s. During that period, the Janjaweed militia, a precursor to the RSF, mounted a campaign of genocide.




More than 1.4 million Sudanese have sought shelter in neighboring countries since the onset of the conflict.

Throughout 2023, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, the UN adviser on genocide prevention, has issued statements shedding light on a disturbing rise in ethnically motivated violence in Sudan.

Amid this catastrophe, Wad Madani, the capital of Al-Jazirah state, located roughly 85 miles southeast of Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, stands as a somber testament to the relentless brutality of the conflict.

As the latest city to fall to the RSF this December, this once bustling urban center is now enduring the nightmare of looting, abuses against civilians, and open warfare.

Mohamad Abdel, a 32-year-old Sudanese, said his relatives have once again been forced to flee. “The thought of repeatedly reliving this nightmare is terrible,” he told Arab News.

“My father finds himself on the road once again, fleeing the horrors of war. May someone finally put an end to this war,” he added, calling on the warring parties to agree to a ceasefire.

Towns and villages throughout Al-Jazirah state are now under the control of the RSF, marking a major strategic advance for the militia. The group’s tactics, characterized by information warfare and minimal fighting, have shifted the military dynamics in the region.

They have also raised concerns about food security and local health systems.




The conflict between erstwhile allies — the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces — has devastated the country that they jointly seized in 2021 in a coup. (AFP)

Jazira state produces significant quantities of cotton, peanuts, and wheat. Concerns about the potential impact on Sudan’s food supply have been echoed by the UN World Food Programme, which has emphasized the need for the state to continue farming.

The Sudan Doctors’ Trade Union also highlighted the dire situation in Wad Madani. In a statement, the union said: “All 22 hospitals in the city are rendered completely non-operational following the RSF invasion.”

Since violence erupted in the eastern neighborhoods of Wad Madani, such as Abu Haraz and Hantoub, many residents have found they can no longer reach Sennar, the nearest urban area outside RSF control.

Muawiya Abdulrahman, a member of the Khartoum Resistance Committee, a grassroots pro-democracy movement, told Arab News he was turned back at one of the RSF’s newly established checkpoints.

He said: “I don’t know where to go next. We are just waiting for the right time to leave after determining our destination.”

Abdulrahman remains confined to the city’s Maki neighborhood, where he has witnessed “widespread looting, with militia members raiding empty houses, stealing money, gold jewelry, and cars, especially under the cover of night.”




Aid agencies warn that more than 6 million people are on the brink of famine.

Abdulrahman’s movements were already restricted under SAF rule, during which time he feared arbitrary arrests by Islamist factions and military intelligence.

“This was based on discriminatory grounds against those with origins in western Sudan, including Darfur and Kordofan,” he added.

As thousands flee eastwards to Gedaref and Kassala, many of them lacking food, medicines, and other basic necessities, the conflict has given rise to massive disease outbreaks.

Aid workers on the ground report a desperate situation, with limited resources available to address the growing health crisis.

Will Carter, Sudan country director for the Norwegian Refugee Council, told Arab News: “This is one of the most underfunded humanitarian responses in the world.

“The fall of Al-Jazirah state has had a very, very deep impact on the restructured humanitarian operation.

“It’s a very precarious position to be in, in terms of security and stability, in terms of the logistics as well. It creates an even more limited space to help millions of people at the moment, just when they need us the most.”

Beyond the logistical challenges, the fall of Wad Madani has profound implications for public morale and the reputation of the SAF, which has been accused of strategic failures, relying too heavily on allied militias, and lacking sufficient troops despite its recruitment campaigns.




The Sudanese conflict erupted on April 15 and has largely slipped from international diplomatic attention since the start of the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

Some fear that these weaknesses could lead to the RSF’s eventual victory, which could have serious security implications for neighboring Libya, Chad, Central African Republic, and beyond.

As the SAF goes after the scalps of the commanders blamed for the abrupt withdrawal of troops from Al-Jazirah state, Carter says that the world’s loss of interest in the conflict has been a serious mistake.

“While conflicts in other parts of the world draw global attention, Sudan’s silent suffering remains largely neglected,” he said.

He pointed out that the influx of Sudanese refugees into already underserved and fragile areas, including South Sudan, eastern Chad, and regions in Ethiopia, “makes it exceedingly difficult to assist people in a fair and proper manner given the severely limited resources.”


UN chief calls for probe into deaths near Gaza aid site

Updated 02 June 2025
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UN chief calls for probe into deaths near Gaza aid site

  • Antonio Guterres says he is appalled by reports of Palestinians killed and injured while seeking aid
  • Israeli gunfire killed at least 31 people and wounded 176 near aid distribution site in the southern city of Rafah

GAZA: UN chief Antonio Guterres called Monday for an independent investigation into the killing of dozens of Palestinians near a US-backed aid center in Gaza after rescuers blamed the deaths on Israeli fire and the military denied any involvement.
Gaza’s civil defense agency said Israeli gunfire killed at least 31 people and wounded 176 near the aid distribution site in the southern city of Rafah, with AFP photos showing civilians at the scene carting away bodies and medics at nearby hospitals reporting a deluge of gunshot wound victims.
The Israeli military, however, denied its troops had fired on civilians in or around the center, and both it and the aid site’s administrator accused Hamas of sowing false rumors.
“I am appalled by the reports of Palestinians killed and injured while seeking aid in Gaza yesterday. It is unacceptable that Palestinians are risking their lives for food,” Guterres said in a statement, without assigning blame for the deaths.
“I call for an immediate and independent investigation into these events and for perpetrators to be held accountable.”
The Israeli government has cooperated with the group running the site, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), to introduce a new mechanism for distributing aid in Gaza that has bypassed the longstanding UN-led system.
The UN has declined to work with the group out of concerns about its neutrality, with some aid agencies saying it appears designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.
An eyewitness from the scene in Rafah, Sameh Hamuda, 33, had told AFP he was headed toward the aid site amid a crowd of other Palestinians when “quadcopter drones opened fire on the people, and tanks started shooting.”
“Several people were killed right in front of me,” he said.
Another witness, Abdullah Barbakh, 58, also told AFP “the army opened fire from drones and tanks.”
Following the reports, the Israeli army said an initial inquiry found its troops “did not fire at civilians while they were near or within the humanitarian aid distribution site.”
Army spokesman Effie Defrin said in a video message that “Hamas is doing its best, its utmost, to stop us from” distributing aid, and vowed to “investigate each one of those allegations” against Israeli troops.
“I urge you not to believe every rumor spread by Hamas,” he added.
GHF also denied any deaths or injuries took place, adding that “these fake reports have been actively fomented by Hamas.”
Israel has come under increasing international pressure to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza following a more than two-month blockade on aid that was only recently eased.
The UN has warned the entire population of the territory is facing the risk of famine.
It has also reported recent incidents of aid being looted, including by armed individuals.


Talks aimed at securing a ceasefire and the return of hostages taken by Hamas during its October 2023 attack that triggered the war have failed to produce a breakthrough.
Militants took 251 hostages during the attack, 57 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 who the Israeli military says are dead.
After the two sides failed to agree on a new ceasefire proposal last week, Hamas said it was ready to “immediately begin a round of indirect negotiations to reach an agreement on the points of contention.”
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, meanwhile, said he had told the army “to continue forward in Gaza against all targets, regardless of any negotiations.”
Since a brief truce collapsed in March, Israel has intensified its operations to destroy Hamas.
On Monday, Gaza’s civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said 14 people were killed in an Israeli strike on a house in Gaza, “including six children and three women, in addition to more than 20 missing individuals still under the rubble.”
“This house has been bombed before... and people were martyred previously,” resident Mousa Al-Bursh told AFP.
“The house primarily belongs to the Al-Bursh family, but it shelters many others, more than one family, and we don’t know the number of victims inside.”
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says at least 4,201 people have been killed in the territory since Israel resumed its offensive on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 54,470, mostly civilians.
Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.


Nearly 41% of kidney patients died in Gaza as Israel destroys major dialysis center

Updated 02 June 2025
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Nearly 41% of kidney patients died in Gaza as Israel destroys major dialysis center

  • Israeli forces destroyed the Noura Al-Kaabi Dialysis Center in northern Gaza
  • The facility was damaged amid the war and remained standing among the heavily ruined area of Beit Lahiya

LONDON: Palestinian medical sources in the Gaza Strip revealed on Sunday that nearly half of the kidney failure patients in the coastal enclave have died since October 2023 amid ongoing Israeli attacks and restrictions on humanitarian and medical aid.

Israeli attacks on hospitals and medical facilities in Gaza barred 41 percent of kidney patients from accessing life-saving dialysis treatment, resulting in their deaths, according to the Wafa news agency.

On Saturday, Israeli forces destroyed the Noura Al-Kaabi Dialysis Center in northern Gaza, one of the few specialized facilities providing kidney dialysis to 160 patients.

Video footage appears to show Israeli military excavators completely demolishing the facility that was partly damaged amid the war and remained standing among the heavily ruined area of Beit Lahiya.

“The destruction of this center is a catastrophic blow to the health system,” a Palestinian medical source told Wafa, warning of dire consequences for the remaining kidney patients in Gaza.

“This is a disaster with consequences we cannot yet fully comprehend,” they added.


Israeli strike on Gaza kills 14 Palestinians, mostly women and children, hospitals say

Palestinians react at the site of an Israeli strike on a mosque, in Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, June 2, 2025.
Updated 02 June 2025
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Israeli strike on Gaza kills 14 Palestinians, mostly women and children, hospitals say

  • Shifa and Al-Ahli hospitals confirmed the toll from the strike in the built-up Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza

DEIR AL-BALAH: An Israeli strike on a residential building in the Gaza Strip on Monday killed 14 people, mostly women and children, according to health officials.
The Shifa and Al-Ahli hospitals confirmed the toll from the strike in the built-up Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, saying five women and seven children were among those killed.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Israel says it only targets militants and tries to avoid harming civilians. It blames civilian deaths on Hamas because the militant group is entrenched in populated areas.
The Israel-Hamas war began when Palestinian militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. Hamas is still holding 58 hostages, around a third of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel’s military campaign has killed over 54,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were civilians or combatants. The offensive has destroyed vast areas of Gaza and displaced around 90 percent of the population.
Hamas has said it will only release the remaining hostages in return for more Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli pullout.
Israel has vowed to continue the war until all the hostages are returned, and Hamas is defeated or disarmed and sent into exile. It has said it will maintain control of Gaza indefinitely and facilitate what it refers to as the voluntary emigration of much of its population.
Palestinians and most of the international community have rejected the resettlement plans, viewing them as forcible expulsion.


Iraq probes fish die-off in southern marshes

Updated 02 June 2025
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Iraq probes fish die-off in southern marshes

NAJAF: Iraqi authorities on Monday launched a probe into a mass die-off of fish in the southern marshlands, the latest in a string of such events in recent years.
One possible cause for the localized die-off could be a shortage of oxygen sparked by low water flow, increased evaporation and rising temperatures fueled by climate change.
Another possible reason could be chemicals used by fishermen to make it easier to catch their prey, local officials and activists told AFP.
AFP images showed large quantities of silver fish floating in the marshlands of Ibn Najm near the southern city of Najaf.
Buffaloes could be seen surrounded by dead fish, trying to cool themselves off in the water.
“We have received several citizens’ complaints,” said chief environmental officer in Najaf, Jamal Abd Zeid, adding that a technical inspection team had been set up.
An AFP photographer at the site saw a team of civil servants collecting water from the marshland.
Among the issues the team was tasked with probing, Abd Zeid said, were a shortage of water, electrical fishing and the use by fishermen of “poisons.”
For at least five years, Iraq has been hit by successive droughts fueled by climate change.
Authorities also blame the construction of dams by neighboring Iran and Turkiye for the drastic drop in flow in Iraq’s rivers.
The destruction of Iraq’s natural environment is only the latest layer of suffering imposed on a country that has endured decades of war and political oppression.
“We need lab tests to determine the exact cause” of the fish die-off, said environmental activist Jassim Assadi.
A lack of oxygen caused by low water flow, heat, evaporation and wind were all possible reasons, he said.
He said agricultural pesticides could also have led to the mass die-off.
Probes into other similar events showed the use of poison in fishing led to mass deaths.
“It is dangerous for public health, as well as for the food chain,” Assadi said.
“Using poison today, then again in a month or two... It’s going to accumulate.”


Medical NGO blames new US aid group for deadly Gaza chaos

Updated 02 June 2025
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Medical NGO blames new US aid group for deadly Gaza chaos

  • Humanitarian aid must be provided only by humanitarian organizations who have the competence and determination to do it safely and effectively

RAFAH, Palestinian Territories: Medical charity Doctors Without Borders said Sunday that people it treated at a Gaza aid site run by a new US-backed organization reported being “shot from all sides” by Israeli forces.
The NGO, known by its French name MSF, blamed the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s aid distribution system for chaos at the scene in the southern Gaza town of Rafah.
Gaza’s civil defense agency said Israeli fire killed 31 Palestinians at the site. Witnesses told AFP the Israeli military had opened fire.
The GHF and Israeli authorities denied any such incident took place but MSF and other medics reported treating crowds of locals with gunshot wounds at the Nasser hospital in the nearby town of Khan Younis.
“Patients told MSF they were shot from all sides by drones, helicopters, boats, tanks and Israeli soldiers on the ground,” MSF said in a statement.
MSF emergency coordinator Claire Manera in the statement called the GHF’s system of aid delivery “dehumanizing, dangerous and severely ineffective.”
“It has resulted in deaths and injuries of civilians that could have been prevented. Humanitarian aid must be provided only by humanitarian organizations who have the competence and determination to do it safely and effectively.”
MSF communications officer Nour Alsaqa in the statement reported hospital corridors filled with patients, mostly men, with “visible gunshot wounds in their limbs.”
MSF quoted one injured man, Mansour Sami Abdi, as describing people fighting over just five pallets of aid.
“They told us to take food — then they fired from every direction,” he said. “This isn’t aid. It’s a lie.”
The Israeli military said an initial inquiry found its troops “did not fire at civilians while they were near or within the humanitarian aid distribution site.”
A GHF spokesperson said: “These fake reports have been actively fomented by Hamas,” the Islamic militant group that Israel has vowed to destroy in Gaza.